New Delhi, Aug 27 (IANS) Opposition leader Sushma Swaraj Saturday tore into Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi's views on the Lokpal, saying he was dictating the party's stand on the anti-corruption legislation to the Manmohan Singh government.


Sushma Swaraj said Rahul Gandhi's five-page statement in the house during zero hour Friday had made it clear that the Congress party did not approve of the government's decisions in response to Anna Hazare's protest.

"Was Rahul Gandhi making a zero hour intervention in the house or outlining his party's stand to the government? Was he addressing the nation or was he making an intervention?" Sushma Swaraj said.

She also noted that Speaker Meira Kumar had permitted him to make a statement for 15 minutes while other members have to give a notice and get barely three minutes to raise issues of importance.

She said that Gandhi's statement had overturned the "statesmanship shown by the prime minister in the house a day before".

"Now I know why this government has dragged its feet from the assurances it gave to have a debate in the house under a rule that entailed voting and tried to take the back route entry through a private member's resolution," she said, referring to a debate in the house on the basis of Congress MP Sandeep Dikshit's resolution in the Lok Sabha that was curtailed after opposition protest.

On Friday, Gandhi said a Lokpal bill could not alone end corruption and suggested an autonomous Lokpal on the lines of the Election Commission.